Education Scotland’s report on Broughton Primary School and Nursery published

During their visit in October last year, inspectors talked to parents/carers and young people and worked closely with the head teacher and her staff.

The Inspection team found a number of key strengths in the school’s work:

• The environment in the school and nursery was found to be friendly and welcoming. There are positive relationships between all members of the school community. All staff are caring and considerate in their interactions with children, and children feel safe, happy, and looked after.
• The children in the school and nursery are respectful, settled, and polite. They listen attentively to staff and to each other and they are keen to engage and co-operate well when playing and learning.
• The learning experiences in the nursery indoor environment were noted to be of high quality. The staff team in the nursery are successfully helping children to make good progress in their learning.

The following areas for improvement were identified and discussed with the head teacher and a representative from ourselves:

• Improve approaches to leadership of change in the school and nursery. The headteacher needs to ensure that key improvement priorities are identified through robust self-evaluation and addressed in a rigorous manner.
• Improve the overall quality of learning and teaching in the school to meet better all children’s needs. This will help to raise attainment in literacy and numeracy across the school.
• Improve approaches to planning learning and teaching in the school. Teachers need to plan learning for individuals and groups of children across all curricular areas. In doing so, they should plan tasks and activities which are appropriately matched to all children’s level of ability.
• Improve approaches to assessment within the school. Teachers need to gather stronger and more relevant assessment evidence to support planning for learning that meets all children’s needs.

As a result of the inspection findings, the school will receive additional support and time to make necessary improvements. Education Scotland will return to carry out a further inspection of the school within twelve months of the publication of this report.

Carn Peaston, Headteacher Broughton Primary School

 “The team at Broughton Primary are wholeheartedly committed to Getting It Right for Every Child. The identified actions from our recent HMIe report are already being addressed with rigour. We are engaging with SBC Curriculum Team and Quality Improvement Team to ensure we address all points within our robust action plan. We will continue to work closely with parents and community members to enhance partnership working and, as Head Teacher, I will lead all stakeholders in their engagement in addressing all areas for Broughton to continue to grow in strength”.

Chelsea Shapiro, Broughton Primary School Parent Council Chair

“We are very pleased that the inspectors highlighted the nurturing environment that we recognise in our school, and as parents we appreciate the efforts of all those involved with the school. There is a detailed action plan developed to address the areas where the school can improve, and we will support the headteacher to lead the implementation of this plan so we can demonstrate both progress and reflect Broughton as a fantastic school when we are visited again by Education Scotland”.

The report is available from the Education Scotland website.